The social [media] contract

Click the link above for Peter’s excellent analysis of how social media companies ignore their users

Here’s my take…

We are not normal consumers of social media and by the virtue of our social networks being so much larger and more plugged in than the average user, the service becomes less useful because they’re trying to do two things. Monetize the thing and make it easier for the average user.

The recipe for failure is trying to please everyone. You always have to compromise. I agree with Peter that you can’t simply ignore what your users are telling you but ultimately you have to make a choice that will not make a segment of your customers happy.

The answer to this problem is to make your product configurable. The default settings appeal to the widest audience, and the power users will be able to tinker them to tailor it to their needs. Heck, you might even get them to pay for this privilege. Where facebook, tumblr, twitter and other social networks fail is creating ‘features’ that you can’t turn off or on. I realize this is not always feasible, but it certainly is in many cases, especially the one twitter is taking the heat for currently.

Source: peterfeld